Edmond Sollberger

Edmond Sollberger was a Turkish-born, Swiss-British museum curator, cuneiformist, and scholar of the Sumerian language, born on 12 October 1920 in Istanbul. He spoke French, English, Turkish, and Greek. Sollberger studied at the University of Geneva, graduating in 1945, where he later studied linguistics under Henri Frei. In 1947, he moved to Rome to study Sumerian with Anton Deimel. Sollberger began his career in 1949 as an assistant keeper of archaeology at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva. During this time, he authored several works, including *Études de Linguistique Sumérienne* (1950), *Le Système Verbal dans les Inscriptions "Royales" Présargoniques de Lagaš* (1952), and *Corpus des Inscriptions "Royales" Présargoniques de Lagaš* (1956). His 1952 book earned him a DLitt from the University of Geneva. In 1961, Sollberger joined the British Museum as a temporary assistant keeper under Richard David Barnett. He became the department's first cuneiformist since Cyril Gadd's departure in 1955. By 1974, he rose to become the keeper of Western Asiatic antiquities. Notable works include *The Babylonian Legend of the Flood* (1962), *Inscriptions Royales Sumeriennes et Akkadiennes* (with Robert Kupper, 1971), and *Administrative Texts Chiefly Concerning Textiles* (1981). He also edited volumes for the series *Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum*. Sollberger was co-editor of *The Cambridge Ancient History* (1969) and editor-in-chief of *The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia* series from 1979. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1973, he suffered a stroke in 1982, leading to his retirement in 1983. Sollberger passed away ...